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Using the Launcher to configure ScummVM

The ScummVM Launcher gives us a graphical method for changing the settings that it uses to run games. There are two ways to do this: firstly by changing the default settings (which games will follow unless told otherwise), secondly by configuring an individual game to use settings that are different from the defaults. To begin with we will look at changing the default settings. To do this, click on the "Options" button on the right-hand side of the Launcher window. There are many options, and they are separated into tabs: we shall look at each tab in turn.

Graphics tab

The Graphics tab of the ScummVM options

The graphics tab allows us to change various things about the way the games are displayed on screen when played.

Control

Description

Graphics mode

This allows us to change the graphic filter that ScummVM uses (e.g. to scale the game to a bigger resolution). The option has no effect on games whose original resolution is higher than 320x200 or 320x240 (e.g. 640x480) - such games should be configured separately. See the Graphic filters section of the manual for more detail

Render mode

This allows us to change the render mode that ScummVM uses. See the Render Modes section of the manual for more detail

Aspect ratio correction

Most games supported by ScummVM were designed to be played at a screen resolution of 320x200 using rectangular pixels (higher than they were wide). Most modern systems however are using square pixels, which means that the image appears to be squeezed vertically and the characters look wider and shorter than they should. If this option is checked, ScummVM corrects for this by stretching the game window to a resolution of 320x240 which with square pixels looks the same as 320x200 on old monitors. As with Graphic filters, this takes a little processing power to achieve. We can combine this with a Graphic filter, and for example with a scaling of x2 the window size will be 640x480 instead of 640x400.

Fullscreen mode

Switches between playing games in a window, or playing them in fullscreen mode. Switch between the two using Alt-F5 while in a game.

Audio tab

The Audio tab

The audio tab in the options allows us to change various things about the way that sound is outputted in ScummVM games.

This is the emulator used by ScummVM to generate the music when the AdLib music driver is selected. Two emulators are currently available. MAME OPL emulator was the emulator that was used up to version 0.13.1. More recently the DOSBox OPL emulator has been added (but is still experimental).

For games with digitized speech, this control allows the user to decide whether to play the game with speech and without any subtitles, with subtitles displaying the words spoken in the digitized speech but not the speech, or with both.

Subtitle speed

This allows the user to adjust the length of time that the subtitles are displayed on screen: the lower the speed is set, the longer the subtitles appear for.

Volume tab

The Volume tab

The volume tab allows us to set the relative volumes for the various different types of sound that ScummVM plays.

Control

Description

Music volume

The volume of the music played back in games. This is usually MIDI music played back with one of the music drivers, but some games use digitized music.

SFX volume

The volume of the sound effects within the games.

Speech volume

The volume of the digitized speech in the game, if it has any.

Mute All

Mute all sounds.

MIDI tab

The MIDI tab

The MIDI tab lets us change various settings about the MIDI music played back in games.

Control

Description

Soundfont

Some music drivers require you to provide them with a Soundfont, which contains samples of instruments for the device to play back. This setting allows you to choose one.

Mixed AdLib/MIDI mode

Some games contain sound effects that are exclusive to the AdLib soundtrack. For these games, you may wish to use this mode in order to combine MIDI music with AdLib sound effects.

True Roland MT-32 (disable GM emulation)

ScummVM will treat your device as a real MT-32. Because the instrument mappings and system exclusive commands of the MT-32 vary from those of General MIDI devices, you should only enable this option if you are using an actual Roland MT-32, LAPC-I, CM-64, CM-32L, CM-500, or GS device with an MT-32 map.

Enable Roland GS Mode

ScummVM will initialize your GS-compatible device with settings that mimic the MT-32's reverb, (lack of) chorus, pitch bend sensitivity, etc. If it is specified in conjunction with True Roland MT-32 (above), ScummVM will select the MT-32-compatible map and drumset on your GS device. This setting works better than default GM or GS emulation with games that do not have custom instrument mappings (Loom and The Secret of Monkey Island). You should only specify both settings if you are using a GS device that has an MT-32 map, e.g. SC-55, SC-88, SC-8820, etc. Please note that Roland GS Mode is automatically disabled in both Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max Hit the Road, since they use General MIDI natively.

If neither of the above settings is enabled, ScummVM will initialize your device in General MIDI mode and use GM emulation in games with MT-32 soundtracks.

MIDI gain

The relative volume of the general MIDI music. This is only supported by some of the music drivers.

Paths tab

The Paths tab

This part of the options lets the user tell ScummVM where to look for particular files

Control

Description

Save Path

This is the default folder in which ScummVM will store saved games. If this is not set, saved games will generally be stored in the current directory. Exceptions to this include:

Windows Vista and up (\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\ScummVM\Saved games\)

The folder that additional themes for the ScummVM Launcher are stored in.

Misc tab

The Misc tab

The Misc tab contains options that don't belong on any of the other tabs.

Control

Description

Theme

Click on this button to change the visual appearance of the ScummVM Launcher

GUI Renderer

This settings defines how the ScummVM GUI is rendered. The two options are to use either the normal renderer or an antialiased renderer.

Autosave

In some games (namely Beneath a Steel Sky, Flight of the Amazon Queen and all SCUMM games), ScummVM will automatically save the game every few minutes. For the SCUMM engine, it will save in Slot 0. This saved game can be loaded again using Ctrl-0 or the F5 menu. Use this control to adjust the time period that ScummVM waits between saves; the default setting is 5 minutes.

Using the configuration file to configure ScummVM

When you change a setting in the ScummVM Launcher (see Using the Launcher to configure ScummVM), all it does is add a line to the configuration file. This is a plain text file which stores all the settings for ScummVM. It is possible to edit this file directly, and some settings can only be changed this way. A description of the configuration file is available in the User Manual Appendix.

The name of the config file and the location in which it is stored depend on the system you are running ScummVM on:

Operating System

Location of config file

Windows Vista

\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\ScummVM\scummvm.ini

Windows 2000/XP

\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\ScummVM\scummvm.ini

Windows NT4

<windir>\Profiles\username\Application Data\ScummVM\scummvm.ini

Windows 95/98/ME

<windir>\scummvm.ini

Unix

$HOME/.scummvmrc

Mac OS X

$HOME/Library/Preferences/ScummVM Preferences

Others

scummvm.ini in the current directory

Note: all Windows versions will use <windir>\scummvm.ini if it already exists.

General config file settings

These parameters can either be set in the "ScummVM" section of the config file, in which case they specify the default setting, or in the section for a particular game, in which case they override the default setting for that game.

Keyword

Type

Description

path

string

The path in which a game's data files are stored

autosave_period

number

Number of seconds between autosaves (default: 300)

save_slot

number

The savegame number to load on startup

savepath

string

The path to which a game will store its saved games

versioninfo

string

The version of ScummVM that created the configuration file

gameid

string

The real id of a game. Useful if you have several versions of the same game, and want different aliases for them